A CNC Machine that beats cam machines! At the common booth of Esco and Affolter Technologies, there are a lot to see, but in fact the most important can’t be seen that easily. Meeting with MM Affolter and Schuler, CEO’s of these companies.
D2 and D5 are now CNC These two machines have been well know in the market for years for being the most productive machines ever. When decision was taken to create new CNC version of these, that was clear to Esco that:
- The machines had to be small with the same footprint
- The machines had to be at least as productive as cam machines
- The machines had to be more user friendly
- The machines had to be simple to operate and program in every part of the world And the results are there, these machines actually exists and are even more productive than the cam machines for more than 60% of the parts produced!
The secret is in the control The numerical control that equip Esco machines is the same that can be found on Affolter machines, a pure Affolter control developed and build in Switzerland. This control includes a patented IC that was developed to allow Affolter machines to be fast enough to manage the wide number of calculation needed by complex gear hobbing. That IC needs only 17 nanoseconds to deal with a piece of information, it is far more quicker than with any processor or any CNC or computer. MMI has been developed to allow everyone to program the machines, how?
- We program through graphic functions and a few minutes are needed to understand the logic
- No ISO language needed
- The control is available in many languages and soon in Chinese
Synergies Apart the fact that the two companies use the same control, why are they together in Milano? There are clearly some advantages for the companies, for instance just in term of costs for the common infrastructure, but that is for customers that the benefit is higher. If they are speaking about numerical controls, they have two different products range using the same control. The machines are complementary, for instance for dental millers, Esco machines are used to do all the preparation and turning operations and Affolter machines finish the parts with gear hobbing. For a company using both kind of machines with the same logical way to program is clearly another asset.
If you’re in Milano these days, do not miss they booth on Hall 2.
